CoR MOOC 2018: Make the most of EU resources for your region and city

The new free massive open online course (MOOC) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) will go online on 15 January 2018.

The CoR is the first EU body that developed and delivered two MOOCs on "Europe's regions, the EU institutions and policy-making" (2015) and "The EU budget and funding for regions and cities" (2016), which reached more than 15,000 participants worldwide. Building on this successful experience, the CoR is launching a third MOOC focusing on "How to make the most of EU resources for regions and cities". The MOOC will provide relevant information on present and future EU policies and programmes, as well as practical tools and examples of available funding opportunities at regional and local level.

The course will be available on Iversity, an online learning platform, and will include videos, factsheets, infographics and web-streamed live debates with Q&A from the course participants. Moreover, course followers will be able to interact via their learning journals in the course platform. During the first six weeks of the course (15 January-23 February 2018), followers will focus on one specific theme per week and will evaluate their learning progress via assignments and a weekly quiz. Studying time will be about 1.5 hours per week. The course material will remain online for one year, so that after the first six weeks learners can work through the course material in their own pace.

The course is co-created with several Directorates-General of the European​ Commission – Regional and Urban Policy; Budget; Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion; Agriculture and Rural development; Eurostat – as well as the European Investment Bank, Interreg Europe and URBACT. The course is free of charge, open to anyone interested in EU and regional and local affairs, and accessible on all devices.

Who is this course for?

This course is for everybody interested in the EU and its regional and local affairs, particularly for officials of regional and local administrations involved in EU affairs. It also targets students, teachers, local journalists and citizens in general.

What do I need to know?

Recommended background: basic knowledge of the European Union.

What will I learn?

In this course you will learn about how the EU institutions function and work together, how the EU budget is prepared and how this impacts policies and activities at the regional and local level. Present and upcoming EU programmes and policies will be presented, as well as statistics, practical examples and success stories of concrete EU-funded projects across the continent.